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Ingrid Bergman Rose

klommen
10 years ago

I bought a fixer upper house last fall. There is a rose bush in the back yard. I have never had roses before and am at a loss as to how to care for it. Tonight I discovered a tag on the ground in the nearby weeds: Ingrid Bergman Rose. The rose is far beyond it's usual reported height, leggy, but otherwise thriving. What do I need to do for this plant in terms of pruning and whatnot? Can anyone help me?

Comment (1)

  • SoFL Rose z10
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I would give it a light pruning and cut off any dead wood or long canes that have very little leaves. Then I would give it a good dose of Miricle Grow rose fertilizer (liquid) to give it a boost and get it back on its feet quickly.
    I would also try and get your hands on some Rose Tone and give it about a cup full scratched into the drip line. If not see if you can get some slow release granular fertilizer and use as directed.
    I'd also water it twice a week if there is no rain. She'd probably do fine without the watering but it will help her grow in faster after the light pruning.

    Also I would do some research on what type of winter protection she may need so that you are prepared when the cold comes.

    You'll want to prune her hard after the last frost (look up the date of your last frost in a farmer's almanac or just google it). Wait until after winter is over.

    Once she starts leafing out in the spring give her another dose of miracle grow rose fertilizer to get her going fast. And continue with the slow release fertilizer once a week. You can give her MG liquid at half strength once a week or full strength every other week if you desire. But the slow release will work well alone if you are happy with her performance. No need to push her unless you really want to try and get a lot of growth and big blooms.

    If you have fast draining sandy soil however I do recommend the MG liquid because sandy soil looses nutrients pretty quickly. Go for Rose Tone however if you would like to stay organic.

    And now for the spraying! To spray or not to spray, that is the question!
    If you find she is getting alot of blackspot (yellow leaves falling off quickly) or powdery mildew or pretty much anything that seems to be ailing her, you will want to spray her with fungicide every other week.
    The easiest one to get of hold of that is the MOST effective is Bayer's Rose Care disease control. You can get it at your local homedepot/lowes/walmart etc. Its a liquid that you mix with water as directed and spray on the rose ever other week. This will keep her very healthy.
    Some roses however don't really need spraying (albeit very few). Ingrid is supposed to be very disease resistant so if you don't want to spray you can give her a try without it. However, if she is leggy now, its probably from blackspot defoliating her, so its up to you if you want to deal with spraying or a little legginess (or alot of legginess depending on the rose).

    When you prune her lightly now, only cut diseased or dead wood and any cane that may be thinner than a pencil that is leafless or mostly leafless. Leave thin canes that have alot of leaves as the leaves feed the plant. You can also prune any long lanky canes that look out of whack (growing out of the boundaries of the normal bush). Roses grow back pretty quickly so don't be afraid to cut, but dont cut her too severly or she wont bloom again until next spring. Let her do her thing for the rest of the season and next year you can start anew.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Ingrid Bergman Rose Info